The concept of Green Jobs and the economic contribution that they can make to our communities and to the Welsh economy is now well recognised, what we need now is action not words. Across Europe, where some countries have made clearly made more progress than others - in Germany for example some 250,000 people now work in the alternative energy industry as opposed to barely 25,000 here in the UK.
It is clear that more work needs to be done if our communities are going to reap the benefits of green energy jobs and secure energy - a Green Energy Jobs Strategy is an important component to sustainable prosperity, a stable economy and secure energy supplies. As Scotland pushes ahead with developing green energy and green energy jobs it becomes pretty clear that we in Wales are being held back by the lack of devolved powers over energy policy and by Westminster and Whitehall not by a lack of imagination or innovative ideas.
The Plaid driven One Wales Government needs to work towards improving the efficiency of business operations and production processes to reduce CO2 equivalent emissions and to cut down on waste. We need to encourage the development of new cleaner technologies and processes for businesses and promote the use of sustainable infrastructures with regard to energy and waste.
New local authority planning guidelines and feed-in tariffs to rapidly promote the incorporation of small-scale renewable energy installations in individual buildings and groups of buildings are essential. To make this happen, we needs an energy strategy that will create realistic job opportunities for our people and take full advantage of the extraordinary natural resources we have available.
We need to think different, if we can do this, if we make it happen, then there is no reason why Wales should not be amongst the most progressive countries in the field of alternative energy and green jobs. If we don't do this then we run the risk of being sat int the dark...
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